In the late 20th century, major hurricanes Iwa and Iniki hit the Hawaiian Islands and destroyed chicken coops, freeing flocks of domestic fowl to roam. Over the years, those birds mixed with domestic chickens brought later by European colonists and others. Those brought to Hawaii were actually red jungle fowl, the wild ancestor of the modern chicken. Researchers have found markers in both ancient and modern chicken DNA that trace back to precontact Polynesian fowl and can be used to show when and where the birds were transported. The origin story of these particular chickens begins with Polynesians who brought pigs, dogs, and small fowl with them when they took their outrigger canoes across the oceans to settle places such as Easter Island and Hawaii. They’re chickens, yes, but thanks to their origins, they have supercharged survival skills. This may be the chickens’ most powerful survival trait: They thrive in proximity to humans and human-created environments, Eben Gering, an evolutionary biologist at Nova Southeastern University who has studied feral chickens, told me. In the fight between humans and chickens, the chickens are winning. They scratch up landscaping and farmland. Local lawmakers have attempted to keep the population under control, because although some chickens are a local curiosity, too many are a nuisance. When I was there a few years ago, I saw souvenir shops full of T-shirts and caps that referred to the roosters as Kauai Dawn Patrol. All roosters do this, but these ones live among people instead of in industrial barns. In the morning, roosters begin calling long before dawn-and continue all day long. ![]() The roosters are a mixture of orange, mahogany red, and iridescent black. The hens are drab and blend into the bushes. Descended from birds brought to the island in centuries past, they are now feral, surviving on their own, which suits them just fine. ![]() Restaurants hand-paint signs asking patrons not to feed the fowl. The birds kick up newly planted condo landscaping and community gardens. On popular hikes, many people are rewarded at the end of the trail with a picturesque view of the island and a small flock of chickens. They’re visitors to cookouts and picnics. Hens and chicks kick around in grocery-store parking lots and parks. On the island of Kauai, wherever humans go, chickens go too.
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